Nothing can separate

Even if I run away

Your love never fails

I know I still make mistakes

But, You have new mercies for me everyday

Your love never fails

You stay the same through the ages

Your love never changes

There maybe pain in the night

But joy comes in the morning

And when the oceans rage

I don't have to be afraid

Because I know that You love me

Your love never fails

The wind is strong and the water's deep

But I'm not alone here in these open seas

'Cause Your love never fails

—Lyrics to Your Love Never Fails by Jesus Culture

Those are lyrics to the worship song I was listening to today, and as I was croaking along I wondered… how would our lives be different if we really believed that?

What would happen in our lives if we lived in absolute assurance that God loves us, and God’s love never fails?

I was talking with someone not that long ago who was sharing a litany of things that had gone wrong in recent months. She began to weep and said, “Why is God doing this? I grew up singing Jesus loves me, but after all I have been through, clearly God doesn’t love me!”

And honestly, I get it. I have faced heartbreaking situations where I knew God could step in and change everything in an instant. And when God didn’t? It hurt. Deeply.

But here is what God continues to teach me — I need to process my disappointments through the filter of God’s love, and not through the tangled places of my heart. Because when I do the outcome is often, “If God loves me so much, why would God let this happen?”

Instead, when I process things through the filter of the absolute assurance of God’s love; a love that never changes and never fails, the outcome is very different. I realize I have to trust God in the midst of what is happening. Harder still is repositioning my circumstance and look for God’s protection, provision and possible opportunities for growth.

How would things be different for you if you really lived in the absolute assurance of God’s love?

The promise is clear:

Isaiah 54:10a “Though the mountains be shaken and the hills be removed, yet [God’s] unfailing love for you will not be shaken.”
Isaiah 55:8-9, “‘For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,’ declares the LORD. ‘As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.’” (NIV)
Psalm 138:8a: “The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me; Your steadfast love, O LORD, endures forever.” (ESV)